Appropriate levels but still greenish water...pollen?

I'm hoping Aylad may pick up on this thread since she lives in the same climate I do (I'm in SETX) and I keep my levels at the same she does...I'm getting ready to start the pool season here (technically, the pool was never closed, but we haven't used it since September). I maintained the chlorine levels over the winter but experienced the typical CYA loss so the water turned green. A few weeks ago I started bringing my CYA back up to 80-90 (higher than usual, I know, but in SETX it works best this way) and chlorinated to shock levels last week until I was experiencing no loss overnight. My last dose of bleach was Friday 03/09 (I brought it to 16 ppm FC) and it hasn't budged. The CYA is holding strong at 80-90 and my TA is 80. I don't fool with CH because I have a vinyl liner, and the pH is 7.8 (again, I know this is slightly high but it works best in my pool to maintain at this level).

My problem is that spring has sprung in SETX, and the water is still murky, even with the levels being spot-on for sparkling water all last summer. I vacuum and brush, but it seems to not make a dent in the appearance of the water, which looks greenish-blue. Should I still try to bump up the chlorine and raise the FC higher, even though I'm not losing any chlorine, or should I chalk this up to pollen and keep cleaning the devil out of it?

PS: I use the Taylor kit for testing.

Hi, Texas,

In reading your post, I can't help but think about my pool--your numbers are an almost mirror image of mine! :) I also let my pH stay at 7.8--that's the pH of my fill water, and during the hot part of the summer we use the slide a lot to both replace splashout and just to keep the pool water cool, so trying to fight the pH is a worthless battle. Nothing wrong with it at 7.8, though--the kids actually say it's more comfortable on their eyes than it is when it's lower. You just don't want to let it get much higher than 8.0 for an extended period of time, though, because water that's too alkaline can be rough on the liner just as water that's too acid can be.

Anyway....if you are not losing any chlorine overnight at this point, then continuing to shock the pool is just a waste of chlorine. Your murky water sounds to me like a combination of the mess that you cleaned up that didn't get completely filtered out, plus possibly extra pollen and junk that's flying around in the air . There is an incredible amount of pollen, pine tree "fliers", and those little white flaky looking leaves that come from Crepe Myrtles in my pool and in the air in general, even though I have none that in my yard. It comes from the neighbor's house, who has a virtual forest in her back yard. I imagine that you're having the same problems in your area. Do you have a sand or DE filter? When you vacuum are you vacuuming to waste, or to the filter? Is your filter pressure rising, and how much time daily are you operating it? Are you backwashing? If so, how often, and what does the water look like that's coming out?

I suspect that maybe the stuff in your water is just leftover algae bloom and pollen, etc that is too fine for the filter to pick up. If it's a sand filter, you can use the DE trick the other mods use in theirs--they put a handfull of DE in through the skimmer--just enough to raise the filter pressure by 1 psi-- and that will help a sand filter pick up finer stuff than it can by itself. If you do this, add just a little, then check the pressure in 20 minutes or so, then add a little more until you get the 1 psi rise. If you get more than 1 psi, just backwash your filter and start again. You should be running the pump/filter as much as possible, and 24/7 would be great until you get the water cleared up. This also would be a good time to start using a skimmer sock if you don't already--it's just a fine mesh bag that fits inside your skimmer basket and helps trap a lot of the fine stuff before it even gets to the filter. Be prepared to clean it out at least 2 or 3 x a day, though--you'll be amazed at how much garbage they catch!

Let me know how it's going--if you do this consistently for a week or so and still are not seeing any improvement, there is one more trick that I've used with my pool--but it's an absolute last resort so try this first. Good luck!

Texas,
One reading you didn't mention is Combined Chlorine. Is it near zero?

My combined chlorine is 0, FC still holding today and those darn caterpillar look-alike plant part things that come off the trees in spring are attempting to take over the pool. I have a DE filter, and today I did my annual breakdown and cleaned and recharged the grids with all new DE. I'm going to stick with the plan of clean, clean, clean, and then clean some more. I was running the filter 24/7 when I started bringing up the CYA, but I cut it back to 10 hours after my chlorine level stabilized. With all the debris from my neighbor's tree coming down I'm having to run it 24 hours a day again :( I do like the skimmer socks and will give those a go too. Thanks for all the help guys!

Hang in there, I just spent the last hour cleaning those things out of my pool so they won't completely stop up my pump. I'm hoping whoever buys my neighbor's house when she moves out (she's very old, legally blind, unsteady on her feet, I figure it's a matter of time before she has to go assisted living or something...) hates all those trees in the back yard as much as I do and cuts at least half of them down!!

I don't know what your refill water situation is like (we're still technically under water restrictions), but if you can vac to waste it will help remove some of the suspended stuff, albeit a little at a time. Maybe now that you've recharged your DE filter you'll start seeing some result. Let us know how it's going. :)

Janet